20 MODULE 3: TRANSLATING NEWS HEADLINES...- 29 MODULE 4: TRANSLATION OF COLLOCATIONS IN ENGLISH .... And also, there are 5 basic types of metaphors: Dead metaphors, Cliché metaphors, S
METAPHORS IN ENGLISH À À - - Ì St rrrrrrerree 5
“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players They have their exits and their entrances”
Part I - An Overview of Metaphors 1 What is Metaphor?
From English Collins Dictionary, a metaphor is an imaginative way of describing something by referring to something else which is the same in a particular way Meanwhile linguist George P Lakoff and philosopher Mark Johnson stated that the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another
The English metaphor derived from the 16th-century Old French word métaphore, which comes from the Latin metaphora, which means "carrying over", in tum from the Greek petapopd (metaphora), meaning "transfer", or from petapépo (metapherd), meaning either "to carry over" or "to transfer"
Then, a metaphor is a figure of speech that refers, for rhetorical effect, to one thing by mentioning another thing It may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas
One of the most commonly cited examples of a metaphor in English literature is the "All the world's a stage" monologue from “As You Like It”:
All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances [ ] — William Shakespeare, As You
This quotation expresses a metaphor because the world is not literally a stage By asserting that the world is a stage, Shakespeare uses points of comparison between the world and a stage to convey an understanding about the mechanics of the world and the behavior of the people within it ft
The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1937) by rhetorician I A Richards describes a metaphor as having two parts: the tenor (the ground) and the vehicle (the figure or the borrowing idea) The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed In the previous example, "the world" is compared to a stage, describing it with the attributes of "the stage"; "the world" is the tenor, and "a stage" is the vehicle;
"men and women" is the secondary tenor, and "players" is the secondary vehicle
Related to metaphors, Peter Newmark (1988: 104 - 113) - a famous author on translation studies - stated that metaphor means “any figurative expression” including “the transferred sense of a physical word, the personification of an abstraction, and the application of a word or collocation to what it does not literally denote Metaphors may be “single” or “extended” with a collocation, an idiom, a sentence, a proverb, an allegory, or a complete imaginative text” From this, metaphors appear to be a lively linguistic phenomenon, making up new cognitive and aesthetic understandings that the readers need to study carefully in order to acquire the hidden messages
Linguistically, metaphors are identified and classified in numerous ways
However, for this writing is focusing on metaphors in translation, the classification of metaphors is also basing on Peter Newmark’s idea (1988)
According to Newmark, “whenever you meet a sentence that is grammatical but does not appear to make sense, you have to test its apparently nonsensical element for a possible metaphorical meaning, even if the writing is faulty, since it is unlikely that anyone, in an otherwise sensible text, is suddenly going to write deliberate nonsense And also, there are 5 basic types of metaphors: Dead metaphors, Cliché metaphors, Stock/ Standard metaphors, Recent metaphors, and Original metaphors
2.1 Dead Metaphors A dead metaphor is a figure of speech which has lost the original imagery of its meaning due to extensive, repetitive, and popular usage Because dead metaphors have a conventional meaning that differs from the original, they can be understood without knowing their earlier connotation For dead metaphors, one is hardly conscious of the image, frequently related to universal terms of space and time, the main part of the body, general ecological features and the main human activities In English, they can be such words or phrases as space, field, mine, top, bottom, foot, mouth, arm, circle, drop, fair, rise, or falling head-over-heels in love In Vietnamese, they can be such words or phrases as dong doi, lang phí thời gian, ngập đầu trong công việc, mở mang trí tuệ, chiếm đoạt tình yêu, con tim rung động, hại sức khỏe (hút thuốc có hại cho sức khỏe), xâm phạm tiết hạnh, hỏi thăm sức khỏe (sở thuế vụ đã đến hỏi thăm sức khỏe anh ta), Sở Khanh (hắn ta nồi tiếng là một tay sở khanh)
Normally dead metaphors are not difficult to translate, but they often defy literal translation, and therefore offer choices In English, dead metaphors can be livened up, sometimes into metonyms, by conversion to phrasal words (‘drop out', 'weigh up') and this must be accounted for in the translation
A cliché or cliche (/‘kli:fer/ or /kl1‘fer/) is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being trite or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel A cliché is often a vivid depiction of an abstraction that relies upon analogy or exaggeration for effect, often drawn from everyday experience
Cliché metaphors as metaphors that have perhaps temporarily outlived their usefulness, that are used as a substitute for clear thought, often emotively, but without corresponding to the facts of the matter Take the passage: 'The
County School will in effect become not a backwater but a break through in educational development which will set trends for the future In this, its
‘traditions will help and it may well become a jewel in the crown of the county's education.’ It is not difficult to see the unnaturalness of the passage Used sparingly, it may succeed, but the use of a cliché in writing, speech, or argument is generally considered a mark of inexperience or a lack of originality.
Stock metaphor is an established metaphor which in an informal context is an efficient and concise method of covering a physical and/or mental situation both referentially and pragmatically A stock metaphor has a certain emotional warmth and which is not deadened by overuse
In terms of translation, stock metaphors are sometimes tricky to translate, since their apparent equivalents may be out of date or affected or used by a different social class or age group “He's in a giving humour”, “he's a man of good appearance”, or “he's on the eve of getting married” are examples of stock metaphors All these are in the Harrap dictionary but they are supposed not to have ‘the implications of utterance Some other examples of stock metaphor are “wooden face”, or “hawks and doves” which can be transferred into Vietnamese literally, referentially and pragmatically as “mat thot” and
“diéu hau va chim bé cau” However, it is not easy to replace the original image in the source language by the same one in the target one That is the reason why stock metaphor is considered as one of the difficulties of translation process For example, the sentences listed above “He's in a giving humour’, “he's a man of good appearance”, or “he's on the eve of getting married”, though they are not confusing at all, but they are unable to be reproduced into corresponding images or expressions in Vietnamese
Recent metaphors, where an anonymous metaphorical neologism has become generally used in the SL, Newmark categorises this metaphor as a live metaphor because they are usually born in teenager jargon or in technology or in journalism They are also spread specially rapidly in the source language
An Overview of Metaphors - th 01 11g rrưy 5
COMPOUND ADJECTIVES À - - Series 17
Part I - An Overview of Compound Adjectives 1 What are Compound Adjectives?
A compound adjective is formed when two or more adjectives are joined together to modify the same noun These terms should be hyphenated to avoid confusion or ambiguity
Compound adjectives are always used to condense a lot of information in few words They are common in writing than in speech There are two main types of compound adjectives i Compound adjectives which are original to the text in which they occur
These words will not usually be found in a dictionary, like oil-rich, fuel-cell ii Compound adjectives which are used so commonly that they have become part of the vocabulary of the English language These words will usually be found in dictionary, like short-sighted, well-educated
The most commonly used compound adjectives are mostly formed in the following ways: a Adjective/ Adverb/ Noun + Past Participle: narrow-minded, well- known, so-called, king-sized
- This densely-populated area has the highest crime rates in the country
- We live on a brightly-lit street in the city centre
- The students gave a high-spirited musical performance
^ b Adjective/ Adverb/ Noun + Present Participle (-ING): best-selling, hard-working
- These was a variety of mouth-watering desserts at the wedding reception
- It was a thought-provoking novel
- Some forward-thinking politicians are proposing reforms to the educational system c Compound Adjectives with Numbers: three-second, one-month, four- year-old
- [have a two-year contract with my cell phone provider
- He handed me a twenty-page report
- We live in a twelve-storey apartment building d Noun + adjective: accident-prone, lead-free, sugar-coated, tax-free
- There’s nothing better than drinking an ice-cold lemonade on a hot summer day
- I hate it when my boss wants to make last-minute changes to a publication
- We had dinner at a world-famous Italian restaurant e Adjectives + prepositions: built-up, well-off, all-out competition, the trickle-down theory , tell-off, hard-up,
3 Strategies for Translation of Compound Adjectives
In English, compound adjectives constitute a powerful device to compress information into a lexical unit consisting of two (occasionally more) bases Their morphological patterns express a number of different semantic relationships between the constituents, while leaving implicit the syntactic links between them; within the same pattern, the relationship between the constituents can sometimes vary The success of these compounds depends on the fact that they permit economy (the packing of the maximum content in the minimum number of words), constitute an open-ended subsystem, and provide a means to create neologisms and occasionalisms
Mona Baker summarized the difficulties in translating items above the word level (1992: 54 - 70) as follows: a The engrossing effect of source text patterning: the influence of the pattern of a TL multi-word on a SL one
18 b Misinterpeting the meaning of a SL multi-word and a TL multi-word: two multiwords denote the same but connote a different referent, because of similar form but different contextual use c The tension between accuracy and naturalness: the need to render the meaning of a SL multi-word slightly differently for the sake of its accuracy and naturalness in the TL d Culture-specific multi-words: they reflect the cultural setting in which they occur and which may be quite different to that in TL e Marked multi-words in the ST: items whose unusual combination of words is difficult to be marked; in the TL
Mona Baker (1992: 71-78) also proposed the following strategies for translation problems of equivalence: a Translation by a more general word: This is one of the most common strategies to deal with many types of nonequivalence As Baker believes, it works appropriately in most, if not all, languages, because in the semantic field, meaning is not language dependent b Translation by a more neutral/ less expressive word: This is another strategy in the semantic field of structure c Translation by cultural substitution: This strategy involves replacing a culture-specific item or expression with a target language item considering its impact on the target reader This strategy makes the translated text more natural, more understandable and more familiar to the target reader d Translation using a loan word or loan word plus explanation: This strategy is usually used in dealing with culture-specific items, modern concepts, and buzz words Using the loan word with an explanation is very useful when a word is repeated several times in the text At the first time the word is mentioned by the explanation and in the next times the word can be
“ used by its own e Translation by paraphrase using a related word: This strategy is used when the source item in lexicalized in the target language but in a
19 different form, and when the frequency with which a certain form is used in the source text is obviously higher than it would be natural in the target language f Translation by paraphrase using unrelated words: The paraphrase strategy can be used when the concept in the source item is not lexicalized in the target language When the meaning of the source item is complex in the target language, the paraphrase strategy may be used instead of using related words; it may be based on modifying a super-ordinate or simply on making clear the meaning of the source item g Translation by omission: This may be a drastic kind of strategy, but in fact it may be even useful to omit translating a word or expression in some contexts If the meaning conveyed by a particular item or expression is not necessary to mention in the understanding of the translation, translators use this strategy to avoid lengthy explanations h Translation by illustration: This strategy can be useful when the target equivalent item does not cover some aspects of the source item and the equivalent item refers to a physical entity which can be illustrated, particularly in order to avoid over-explanation and to be concise and to the point
English and Vietnamese are of different language systems, one is polysyllabic, and one is monosyllabic That makes up lots of difficulties while transferring a text from this language to another The strategies proposed by M
Baker (1992) can apply to the process of translating from English into Vietnamese, and vice versa, depending on the type of compound adjectives as well as the meaning of the text in its context
Part II - Practice Task 1 Match the two parts of the compound adjectives produced made minute standing tight k called
Task 2 Complete the sentences using compound adjectives from Task 1 a He made a decision to take the job, and only just notified the company in time b The economist was a very man, not inclined to get over- excited by unexpected developments c It was a very idea - completely impractical and unworkable! d Maria was a very person who never thought about how other people might feel
Task 3 Replace the relative clause in italics Use an appropriate compound adjectives below The first 1 has been done for you environmentally - friendly face-saving hard-working high-speed’ lead-free § ready-made sugar-coated
1 Firms will compete to employ individuals with talent who are willing to work hard
> Firms will compete to employ hard-working individuals with talent
2 There is an increased demand for products which do not cause pollution
4 Many doctors still prefer to prescribe tablets which are covered in sugar for children
5 Many commuters now travel from London to Paris on trains which travel very quickly
6 Foods which have been prepared in advance are a popular choice for working parents
7 The government was forced to make a compromise which would avoid further embarrassment
Task 4 Translate these short texts from Vietnamese into English
Biển Chết a Biển Chết là một hồ nước trong đất liền, nằm giáp biên giới Jordan, Israel và Palestine, theo Live Science Nó được công nhận là một trong những hồ chứa nước có độ mặn cao nhất thế giới Không một loài ca, chim hay thực vật nào sóng được trong môi trường có độ mặn cao ở Biển Chết Nước ở đây có độ mặn gân gấp 10 lần nước biên bình thường b Đại dương trên Trái Đất chứa khoảng 3,5% thành phần là muối, theo Cục Hải dương và khí quyền Mỹ (NOAA) Muối này có nguồn gốc từ đá trên đất liền Axit trong nước mưa phá vỡ đá, thu giữ ion trong đá và mang chúng ra biển Phần lớn các ion này là natri và clo, hai loại ion kết hợp với nhau tạo thành muối trong đại dương. c Nếu loại bỏ muối ra khỏi nước, chúng ra sẽ thu được khoảng 50 triệu tỷ tấn muối, tạo thành một lớp muối dày 153 mét bao phủ xung quanh Trái Đật, tương đương chiều cao của tòa nhà 40 tầng NOAA ước tính, nước hồ Biển Chết có độ mặn gấp 5-9 lần nước biển Độ mặn nước biến tùy thuộc độ sâu Ở độ sâu
100 mét so với mặt biển, nước bão hòa với muối và không thể hòa tan thêm nữa, khiến muối tích tụ đưới đáy biển d Biển Chết nằm trong một thung lũng trải dài hơn 1.000 km, bắt đầu từ bán đảo Sinai và mở rộng về phía bắc tới Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ Khu vực này trũng nhất Trái Đất, thấp hơn 429 mét so với mực nước biển Một loạt hồ từng xuất hiện ở thung lũng này và biến mắt 15.000 năm trước, chỉ còn lại Biển Chết, theo Trung tâm nghiên cứu Biển Chết Minerva (MDSRC) e Nước ngọt từ sông Jordan là nguồn duy nhất chảy vào Biển Chết Tuy nhiên, ở đây lại không có con kênh hay dòng chảy nào dẫn nước từ hồ ra đại 24 dương Nước tích tụ trong Biển Chết và bốc hơi nhanh hơn tốc độ của nước biển trong đại đương, khiến nồng độ muối Biển Chết cao hơn biển, MDSRC giải thích
Task 5 Translate these short texts from English into Vietnamese Army Ants a Forget lions, tigers, and bears When it comes to the art of war, army ants are among the most frightening creatures on earth With powerful mouth parts, these fighters can skillfully cut creatures much larger than themselves into pieces Acting together in great numbers, army ant colonies succeed at making tens of thousands of such kills each day Their capabilities do have limits, though Contrary to popular belief, they almost never take down large animals or people. b One of the best places to observe army ants is Barro Colorado, an island in a lake created by the Panama Canal The island is home to as many as
50 colonies of Eciton burchellii, the most studied army ant in the world It is one of 150 types of army ants in the New World; more than 170 other types live in Asia, Africa, and Australia The colonies of this army ant are huge, ranging from 300,000 to 700,000 ants They never stay in one place long, moving from nest site to nest site c Linking legs together, they use their own bodies to form enormous nests called bivouacs, which they hang beneath a fallen tree There they stay for about 20 days as the queen lays as many as 300,000 eggs When the ants go hunting, as many as 200,000 of them leave the nest in a group that broadens into a fan as wide as 14 meters This swarm raid takes a slightly different course each day, allowing the hunters to cover fresh ground each time. d Protecting the ants wherever they go are the soldiers, recognizable by their over-sized jaws If their frightening looks don’t scare enemies away, soldiers also have a powerful bite - and the attack is often suicidal Because their jaws are shaped like fishhooks, the soldiers can’t pull them out again
An Overview of Compound ÁdjectiVes - ctvceeverrrree 17
TRANSLATING NEWS HEADLINES
Reading newspaper articles is an excellent way for foreign learners to build vocabulary and practice comprehension using real materials It can expose you to different topics, and a variety of language that is rare in spoken English
However, newspaper writing is rarely a representation of common English
In newspapers, headline size is determined by three parameters: the width (defined by the number of columns the hed will have), the depth (whether it gets one line or two, called "single deck" or "double deck," respectively), and the font size
The headline, in any kind of mass media, is conventionally defined as
“the title of a newspaper report, which is printed in large letters above the report and the most important points of the main news stories that are read at the beginning of a newspaper on radio or television” (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2003) To put it differently, the headlines have an extremely critical and privileged position, heading the newspapers, reports or articles with a distinct layout and typography in order to present the main ideas as well-as the most crucial information that the readers want to know through few, condensed, and well-selected words (Gorjian et al., 2013; Hendar, 2012;
Lee, 2012; Petroniené & Zvirblyte, 2012; Uppuleti & Ganta, 2015)
2 Why do headlines matter? t The importance of headlines cannot be understated For many editors,
‘can seem like added burdens; the stories are what really count Headlines are far too often written last (often quickly and under deadline pressure) But let’s think like a reader The reader unfolds the newspaper and sees what first? The
29 photos, the headlines These are the first reader entry points Busy people (which includes all of your readers) scan the newspaper, surveying photos, headlines and cutlines to decide if they want to commit more time to reading the stories that interest them The photos, cutlines and headlines are thus important decision-making points In fact, they may be more important than any paragraph in a normal story
Shi (2014) explained that the news headlines do not only have the function of setting a short summary of the main context of articles but they also arise the readers’ curiosity, grab their attention, and direct them to be engrossed to a certain expressed idea; therefore, they are described as the “eyes” or
“windows” through which the readers can get the core and key information in the news reports or articles In other words, the news headlines give a rundown to news content, facilitating the process of reading and enabling the readers to easily choose the information in a very short time when browsing them
Therefore, the designers of newspapers attempt to practice special printing or graphical techniques as decorating newspaper pages and using varied fonts, sizes, colors, and structures to magnetize the readers’ attention to distinguished news headlines To move further, the news headlines are not only a condensed semantic summary of a story or an eye-catching and intruding mean of public media, but they also function as a communicative device that is designed to create that optimal connection between the core of story and the readers’ interpretations or analysis (Roohani & Esmaeili, 2010) Dor (2003) had an explicit and general answer to a very fundamental question about the communicative function of the news headlines stating that they are “relevance optimizers” or “textual negotiators” between stories and their readers Thus, such headlines are identified as that “medium” of mass communication which are capable of providing all essential and critical information for regular readers in order to shape, support or defend, or revise their views (Uppuleti &
Despite the fact that the news headlines in newspapers differ from one to another, the formulation of any news headline, from a journalistic perspective,
30 must match with specific as well as fundamental characteristics as follows: shortness and simplification in which all difficult and awkward structures are simplified as well as all redundant information is deleted because of the limited space available in the newspaper, variedness in which all news headlines should present fresh, novel, and diversified news either in content or appearance (Shi, 2014: 1882), and truthfulness in which the news headlines- as main parts of discourses- must be set to present a specific aspect of truth and reality by filtering unreal information in order not to be misleading, inaccurate, or ambiguous (Metila, 2013)
Other characteristics also include attractiveness, brevity, and clarity (Roohani & Esmaeili, 2010; Shi, 2014; SilaSki, 2009) In order to have typical news headlines in terms of functions and characteristics, they need to be reconciled with means of their own lexical, grammatical, and rhetorical styles, i.e., some linguistic structures make them unique and special, yet simultaneously, different from other types of texts Strauman (cited in Roohani
& Esmaeili, 2010) considered the language of news headlines “autonomous” being under the subject of linguistic analysis Lexically, the most important code to convey both connotative and detonative meaning to the readers is by using simple, short, precise and appropriate words (Ifantidou, 2009) These words, phrases, or short sentences in the news headline should create a bridge between the story and its previously known facts and events in the text as well as between the prior knowledge, expectations and predictions in the readers’ mental cognition (Dor, 2003) In short, writing headlines must follow these four imperatives: be correct (in fact and implication); connect to ordinary readers (be easily understood); attract attention (using interesting, active words), and set (or match) tone of the article Be alert to headlines that have unintended meanings
Headlines in newspapers, in particular, use different grammar rules to everyday English This is because they are designed to be short and to attract
31 attention Regarding the grammatical features of the news headlines, Mardh (cited in Bazza, 2012) identified some of the following features: e The omission of articles e The omission of verbs and auxiliaries e Nominalizations e The frequent use of complex noun phrases in subject positions e The omission of both verbs and subjects e The use of short words e The widespread use of puns, word play, and alliteration e The importance of word order, with the most important items placed first Saxena (2006) suggested other grammatical features as typical of the news headlines as the following: e active verbs give meaning and weight to the headlines (while finite verbs forms are very often omitted); e widely known abbreviations should/ may be used e attributions of those whose statements or comments are presented in articles should be used in headlines; © present tense is the most common; ¢ infinitive is often used instead of future tenses; e numbers should be written as numerals in order to save space; © punctuation should be avoided; © question headlines have to be replaced by direct sentences as questions refer to uncertainty; thus, if the topic is interesting enough, question headlines might be used;
It is clearly noticeable that the news headlines deliberately violate many grammatical rules which make them sound difficult to be understood or translated especially by ESL/EFL students In addition, the news headlines are also characterized by their distinctive rhetorical forms, i.e., the use of rhyme, 32 rhythm, and alliteration to make them sound poetic, eye-grabbing, and memorable (Uppuleti & Ganta, 2010) To conclude, the news headlines in the newspapers form a special subgenre of mass media which present high compressed and condensed news set with special linguistic features, contributing to arise many challenges not only to the ESL/EFL students but also to some native speakers
The following 8 rules are often the most common in use:
1 Use present simple tense for past events
The present tense is quick and current, and helps emphasise the action happening, rather than its completion
Y Parliament confirms new stray dog policy
If we want to demonstrate the result of an action, or that something was completed, we can use perfect tenses, and for changing events, the present continuous may be used However, these tenses are often shown by using participles alone
With perfect, progressive and passive structures, auxiliary verbs are not necessary This makes some headlines appear to be in the past tense, when actually the headlines use past participles, or particles, not the past simple
Similarly, changing events are represented by the present participle on its own v New policy decided by Parliament (New policy has been decided by
Parliament) ¥ Lion escapes zoo - ten killed (ten people have been killed/were killed)
Y Four stranded in sudden flood (four people have been stranded / were stranded) ¥ Temperatures rising as climate changes (temperatures are rising)
3 Use infinitives for future events ¥ Parliament to decide new policy tomorrow
Y President to visit France for further talks
Using the infinitive, a future time is not always necessary to demonstrate the future tense in headlines
TRANSLATION OF COLLOCATIONS IN ENGLISH
TRANSLATION OF COLLOCATIONS IN ENGLISH
Collocation is the relationship between two words or groups of words that often go together and form a common expression If the expression is heard often, the words become glued together in our minds Heavy rain and strong wind are examples of collocated pairs of words
When words are used together regularly, rules are formed about their use not for grammatical reasons Ladies and gentleman appears in that order because of collocation They are always in that order and to put them the other way around seems wrong For the same reason we make a mess and we do a test The reason for using these verbs with these is that we always do, this is collocation
Some famous linguists stated about collocations as: eM L Larson (1984) stated that “Collocations are words joined together in phrases or sentences to form semantically unified expressions” (p.144) eE A Nida (1982) defined collocation as “a structured combination of words with COMPATIBLE semantic components” (198) eM Baker (1997) defined collocation as “ semantically arbitrary restrictions which do not follow logically from the propositional meaning of word” (p.47)
( e“Collocation ¡s the way ¡n which some words are often used together, ora particular combination of words used in this way: ‘Commit a crime’ is a typical collocation in English” (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English,
The translation of collocations can be discussed through the discussion of their commonest types in English In principle, fixed expressions of all types also come under the general umbrella of collocations According to Benson (1985), there are several types of collocations However, the concentration is on the most important types only, which are extremely recurrent and interest the most The classification of these types is purely grammatical, depending on the grammatical groupings of word classes The adoption of grammatical description makes the structure of collocation easier to follow, understand and easy to translate
1 Adverb + Adjective e Invading that country was an utterly stupid thing to do e We entered a richly decorated room e Are you fully aware of the implications of your action?
2 Adjective + Noun e The doctor ordered him to take regular exercise e The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage e He was writhing on the ground in excruciating pain
3 Noun + Noun e Let's give Mr Jones a round of applause e The ceasefire agreement came into effect at 11am e I'd like to buy two bars of soap please
4 Noun + Verb e The lion started to roar when it heard the dog barking e Snow was falling as our plane took off e The bomb went off when he started the car engine
5 Verb + Noun e The prisoner was hanged for committing murder
46 e I always try to do my homework in the moming, after making my bed e He has been asked to give a presentation about his work
6 Verb + Expression with preposition e We had to return home because we had run out of money e At first her eyes filled with horror, and then she burst into tears e Their behaviour was enough to drive anybody to crime
7 Verb + Adverb e She placed her keys gently on the table and sat down e Mary whispered softly in John's ear e I vaguely remember that it was growing dark when we left
3 Translation of Collocations in English
Here are the strategies of translating collocation that are proposed byM
Collocation in lexical items have been looked at fro the point of view of the meaning components of which a given word is composed The most part, this meaning is discovered by contrasts one lexical item with another in a system
However, most words have more than one sense Words may have several meanings and these meanings are often called primary meaning or primary sense, and secondary meaning, or secondary sense The primary sense is the meaning suggested by the word when it is used alone It is the first meaning that a word will suggest to most people when the word is said in isolation But the same word may have a different meaning when used in context with other words This meaning is called secondary meaning or secondary sense
Larson (1984:102-103) proposed some strategies in analyzing meanings in collocation, in the following: a Collecting data
( b Sort the collocates into the generic classes
47 c Regroup the contexts according to the collocates which belong to the same generic classes d List and label the senses of the word
According to him, the secondary meaning is signaled by the context in which the word occurs It is very important that the context be built into the translation since a secondary sense will almost always need to be translated by a different word than the word that refers the primary sense For example, word
“dress” in “I dressed myself” can be restated “I put my clothes on”, and “I dressed the wound” can be restated “I put medicine on and bandaged the wound” e M Baker
Baker sees that the way in which an idiom or a fixed expression can be translated into another language depends on many factors It is not only a question of whether an idiom with a similar meaning is available the target language Other factors include the appropriateness or inappropriateness of using idiomatic language in a given register in the target language The acceptability non-acceptability of using any of the strategies described will depend on the context in which a given idiom is translated
Baker (1997: 71-78) proposed some strategies in translating idioms as the following: a Using an idiom of similar meaning and form: This strategy involves using an idiom in the target language which conveys roughly the same meaning as that of the source-language idiom and, in addition, consists of equivalent lexical items This kind of match can only occasionally be achieved b Using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form: It is often possible to find an idiom or fixed expression in the target language which has a meaning similar to that of the source idiom or expression, but which consists of different lexical items c Translation by paraphrase: This is by far the most common way of translating idioms when a match cannot be found in the target language or 48 when it seems inappropriate to use idiomatic language in the target text because of differences in stylistic preferences of the source and target languages d Translation by omission: As with single words, an idiom may sometimes be omitted altogether in the target text This may be because it has no close match in the target language, its meaning cannot be easily paraphrased, or for stylistic reasons
Task 1 Find Vietnamese equivalents for the following hyphenated words
“able-bodied brother-in-law clean-cut